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Building Simple On-Ground
and Raised Vegetable Garden Beds
On this page find how to build on-ground and raised garden beds for growing vegetables, including:
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- Choosing between on-ground and raised garden beds for growing vegetables.
- When raised beds are superior to on-ground or in-ground vegetable beds.
- Choosing fill and soil mediums for on-ground and raised bed vegetable gardens.
- A step-by-step demonstration of how to build a simple, rectangular on-ground vegetable bed.
- A step-by-step demonstration fo how to build a simple, rectangular raised vegetable bed.
- Skills, tools, and materials required to build garden beds.
Getting Started
It’s an easy one-day project to build either of these simple wooden raised beds for your home vegetable garden.
Only simple building and carpentry skills are required, and most tools are readily available or already on hand. If a special tool is needed, it will be found at most equipment rental yards or local hardware and home stores.
Raised and On-Ground Garden Beds
Large and tall raised beds are desirable for some sites, but simple on-ground and low-rise beds are easier to build. They produce attractive gardens with successful plants.
As a bonus, they require only simple skills easily mastered by beginners.
Raised beds make great additions to landscapes and beautify yards. They also serve practical purposes. They give vegetable plants a fertile area to grow, even in areas with difficult or inadequate soil.
Step-By-Step Instructions
Building home vegetable gardens that look great and produce a bountiful harvest is easier than ever.
The two most popular bed plans after row gardens in rich native soil are on-ground and raised garden beds. Because they allocate space for the vegetables to grow and separate them from paths and access points, they’re as easy to use as they are good looking.
Use on-ground beds for mostly level sites with good soils. Raised beds filled with rich soils help make gardening possible in poor soils or sloped surfaces. They are standard parts of terraced hillside gardens [See: Hillside Terrace Gardens].
How to Build a Simple On-Ground Garden Bed
On level sites with rich growing soil, on-ground beds are the simplest to install.
These beds divide growing areas from pathways and margins, using 2 x 12-in. (38 x 292-mm) dimensioned lumber—never pressure-treated lumber—with simple lag-screw fasteners, corners that overlap, and support stakes.
Gather your tools, 2 x 12-in. (38 x 292-mm) dimensioned lumber, lag screws, and washers. Build your on-ground bed by following these simple steps:
How to Build an On-Ground Vegetable Bed
Use flour, garden lime, or sand to mark the outline of the bed area. Observe the result and adjust placement of the planter as necessary until it fits your planned use.
Excavate the perimeter by trenching 4–6 in. (10-15 cm) deep beneath the marked lines. Leaves the bottom of the trench, using a carpenter’s spirit level.
Cut 2 x 12-in. (38 X 292-mm) lumber to length of width and length of bed. Place it into the trench, overlapping width pieces with the long sides.
Drill pilot holes. Use a socket wrench or power driver to install three lag bolts to fasten the joints at each corner.
Drive wooden stakes 3-ft. (90 cm) apart along the wooden sides of the bed. Drill pilot holes and insert lag bolts through them, tightening each bolts until it is two-thirds through the sideboards. Fill the planter with rich planting soil mixed with organic compost to ready the bed for planting.
Raised Garden Beds
On sloped or hillside sites, on level sites with poor soil and drainage, or on rocky sites, raised beds are the answer. Like terraces, they allow leveling slopes and adding rich topsoil for growing vegetables.
Raised beds are also the answer for gardeners with mobility disabilities. They raise the soil and vegetables to working-height level, avoiding the need to bend and stoop while caring for a home vegetable garden.
Most are made with simple log-cabin-style overlapping 4 x 4- or 6 x 6-in. (100 x 100- or 150 x 150-mm) dimensioned post timbers.
(They also can be built as simple boxes with one or more courses of 2 x 12-in. (38 x 292-mm) dimensioned lumber—never pressure-treated lumber—held in place with sturdy, 4 x 4-in. (100 x 100-mm) exterior support posts. The posts extend below the bed into the site’s soil, and the boxes’ sidewalls are fastened to to them with lag screws set in drilled holes.)
Gather your tools and the necessary materials, and fasteners for your project. Build your raised bed by following these steps:
How to Build a Raised Vegetable Bed
Remove all existing turf and any weeds at the site to their roots to prevent them from growing in the bed or blocking the flow of water through the bed’s base. Trench along the outside perimeter of the bed.
Calculate the end angles to cut your timbers by dividing 360° by the number of sides in your bed. The angles are typically 90°, 60°, or 45° for beds with 4, 6, or 8 sides. Cut the timbers to length and to fit. Paint the ends of each timber with clear sealant to waterproof its end-grain cuts and prevent splitting.
Lay a first course of timbers in the trench as the bed’s base. Use a carpenter’s spirit level to align and level them. Add or remove soil until the course is level. All joints must be snug and match evenly.
Lay the timbers of the second and third courses, lapping them log-cabin fashion and driving a spike into each overlap to create strong joints able to withstand outward pressures caused when you fill the bed with soil.
If the subsoil is mostly clay or is too dense to drain easily, drill 1/2-in. (12-mm) weep holes at regular intervals along the base of the bottom course to provide drainage.
Line the inside of the bed with permeable landscape fabric, lapping and stapling it into the joints between the top two courses of timbers.